The present invention pertains to printed wiring board fabrication drawings and more particularly to a method for automatically producing and editing printed wiring board fabrication drawings.
Computer automated design and computer automated engineering programs (CAD/CAE) exist for providing certain information relative to fabrication drawings for printed wiring boards (PWB). Previously printed wiring board fabrication drawings were made manually. This was a tedious process and one prone to errors. Modifications to these fabrication drawings required that the entire drawing be remade.
With the advent of computers CAD/CAE programs provided for automation of fabrication drawing production. One such program is the Allegro.TM. program produced by Cadence Design Systems Inc. Allegro is a trademark of Cadence Design Systems Inc. The Allegro program provides only a single drill table and drill figures at a time. The Allegro program allows only fixed notes to be affixed to the printed wiring board drawings. The Allegro program does not allow scaling of the board design within the fabrication drawing. The Allegro program does not allow for automatic update and merging of the fabrication drawing symbols. The Allegro program does not readily lend itself to fabrication drawing changes.
It is desirable to have an interface program to the Allegro program which overcomes the above mentioned shortcomings of the Allegro program and which directly interfaces with the Allegro program.